Acrylic Sheet Drypoint Etching

The background of "Its been a while" was inspired by van Gogh's Starry Starry Night.
In this work, I met up with a childhood friend whom I hadn't met for 5 years at Dohby Gaut MRT station to go to NAFA's open house. I remembered she was so late that I thought I was going to have to go for the open house alone and the moment captured in my work was what I felt seeing her for the first time in half a decade; a happy feeling filling the emptiness of a void.




My Acrylic Sheet's final. I used a dry-point tool to engrave my design on the acrylic sheet. One challenge I face is that it is hard to control the dry-point tool while etching  on the sheet; hard to get a proper curve line if I hesitate to make a mark.. lesson learnt.. don't hesitate!

Drypoint Etching: CopperPlate[things to note]

 Dry-point etching copperplate

To kick off the first copperplate project, we bought an A1 copperplate from the metal vendor and cut(picture above) it into A4, ending up with 12 copperplates in total which was shared equally between myself and a classmate. We both paid about $80 each.

Drypoint Etching: Acrylic Sheet[things to note]

After completing etching on the acrylic sheet, I file and use sandpaper to smoothen the sides of the acrylic sheet to make sure that the edges are smooth. If the edges are not smooth, the acrylic sheet might cut the etching press's blanket and replacing one is $500..

Drypoint Artist Research: Yuan Qing Lu

Morning(1980)

Yuan Qinglu Born in Quzhou Hebei in 1953, Yuan Qinglu is a famous contemporary printmaking artist. He is also a professor in the Fine Arts Department of Handan college, member of the Chinese artists Association, China Association of Printmakers, Vice President of Hebei Province Printmaking Research Association.

Drypoint Artist Research: Albrecht Durer

Albrecht Durer
Albrecht Durer was a painter, printmaker and theorist of the german renaissance, born in Nuremberg, Durer established his reputation and influence across Europe when he was still in his twenties due to his high quality woodcut prints.







The Holy Family(19.73.51)

Produced by scratching the surface of metal with a sharp needle, the image has the character of delicate drawings Apparently conceived in an experimental mode and never completed, the print is nonetheless highly evocative. The three ghostly figures who press into the space behind the Virgin and Child-Saint John, the Magdalene, and Nicodemus.

GameStart! Year 2: A Modern Fairytale

Chosen Printmaking Theme:

A Modern Fairytale

Why have I chosen this theme?

I have chosen this theme because I love stories, especially fairytales. I'm also very inspired by Taiwanese Artist Jimmy Liao (幾米)

Jimmy is an illustrator as well as a picture book writer that uses paintings and artworks to tell stories in the form of a picture book.
He also have some of his work made into textile wallpapers for train stations in Taiwan as well as his very own museum.



Most of Jimmy's work are surreal and has references to famous artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Rene Magritte. I find his work very interesting as he has proven with his painting-turned picture book that Art is a powerful communication tool.


Alike jimmy, I would like to tell stories with my work and with the theme "A Modern Fairytale" I want to prove that fairytales does not exist solely in storybooks and that "fairytale" is something that we; as living beings can experience and live.
In my works, I used the memory of places I've been with a childhood friend that means a lot to me and surrealize the space with my thoughts and feelings at that point in time; breathing life to places like common train stations and fast food restaurants.
The works are also in time-sequence, showing the distance yet unfathomable closeness in our 10 years of friendship.

In future, I will want to hear about the life story of different people and portray their feelings and emotions in my work, who knows? Those things that we keep in our minds, things that we choose not to openly share, be it sadness or happiness, might just be relatable and helpful to others.

Ultimately, I believe people, not just artists, can inspire many.

Reflections: Battle Royale

I find BattleRoyale an interesting movie but i have my doubts that it will ever happen in real life. I find it interesting as the idea to bring an entire class to a island and to only allow one survivor at the end of the event is totally insane. At the start i was already wondering who will be the ultimate survivor as the male lead is played by Tatsuya Fujiwara, the same man that played Light Yagami(self proclaimed god) in my favourite movie, DeathNote. And he lost to righteousness in the end.

If i was put in this situation:
I will never allow Kitano(the main antagonist) to take control of my life. I'll rebel and help my friends to escape. Even if we can't, i'll have died with no regrets because i know that i have fought for the lives of myself and my friends instead of sitting around waiting to die or worst, taking the lives of my friends. I believe the greatest gift on Earth is life and no one, including oneself have the right to take it away. The plan would also be to launch an cyber attack on the event organiser's base, crippling their system to remove the explosive necklaces. After that we'll plan our escapes on boats leaving at 4 different locations from the island so even if the military catch up with one of the groups and gun them down, i dont think they will expect us to split hence increasing the chance of higher survivors.

If i had to make a choice on who to shoot in our class:
It would definately be Raymond because firstly, he is a guy, i dont shoot women, kids and the elderly. Secondly, he said that he would kill and do whatever it takes to stay alive[i guess most people would, but if sacrificing mine could save 100 others why not right?] so even if i want to work together with him i dont think i can completely trust him. Lastly, i didnt have a choice, i had to shoot someone.

Who is the one person that i will save:
I trust the guys to save themself so i'll save Angel. Firstly, shes probablt the one that cares the most about me in class. Secondly, shes so fun loving and loves to laugh so how can she die? lastly, i know i can trust her with lives of myself and others.